Travel hacking is the process of optimizing credit card points/miles to get as much free travel as possible. The “hacking” part of it has changed over the years. Several years ago, there were more techniques available to truly “hack” the process to get a ton of free travel without really spending much, if any money. Most of those ways have been shut down as companies caught on to these various loopholes. So in my opinion, it’s more about optimization than it is hacking for most situations. Nevertheless, the term travel hacking continues to be used today. The basics remain the same as the goal is still to travel as much as possible while spending as little as possible.
The average person may have a credit card that earns some type of points or miles and eventually they may cash them in for a free trip. Travel hacking takes that same concept and kicks into a very high gear. Those that get into the hobby focus on 3 things: 1) getting as many sign up bonuses as possible, 2) optimizing their credit card spending to get the most points/miles and 3) getting the best value for those miles. It truly is a hobby and there’s a lot to learn so it can be overwhelming for some people. That’s the whole purpose of this page! We want to keep it simple so we are going to walk you through all the basics.
The average person may have one or two credit cards and just focus on using them often. Travel hackers may have several credit cards or even dozens of them. Each credit card has a specific use to gain the most amount of points. Travel hackers will also open new credit cards to get a sign up bonus. Some credit cards will be kept for some time while others will be closed (sometimes changed not closed) and reopened several times over years. When it comes to redeeming miles, travel hackers will learn how to get as much value as possible.
Here’s an example. Assume $10,000 of spending. The average person may pay $7,000 of that on a credit card that earns points. They will earn on average of 1.5 times and then redeem those points for 1.25 cents per point. So of that $7000, they got 10,500 points and they got $131.25 worth of value from that. The travel hacker will make sure that $10,000 is all on a credit card. The average earnings will be about 4 times. They will redeem those points at 2.5 cents per point. So of that same spend, they will earn $1000 worth of free travel! Imagine where you could travel if you could consistently do that? That’s what travel hacking is all about. Please note that these are just examples and your personal situation can be better or worse. Either way, you’ll be way ahead of the average person.
So why don’t more people do this? The average person is just too busy and distracted to worry about this. It’s the same reason why everyone isn’t great at playing the guitar or an amazing tennis player. If you want to learn something, you have to put the time into it and most people don’t want to bother. They may also now know where to start. There’s not a lot of resources that will walk you through travel hacking step-by-step so that’s why we started this page!
Start with reading all of the courses in order and then go back and take everything one step at a time. The 100 level courses cover all the basics. This will help put everything that follows in context. The 200 level courses will walk you through what cards to start with and why. The 300 level courses will help you optimize your spending so that you get as many points as possible. The 400 level courses will help you learn how to redeem your points so you can travel for free.
We also started a Facebook group called Simple Travel Hacks. It’s a great place to learn and to ask questions. Feel free to join us.